How to contact us if you experience deafness or are hard of hearing
Are you deaf, hard-of-hearing or speech impaired?
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired there are two ways you can contact us. We have an SMS text service for use in an emergency and a BSL video interpreting service for if there's something you want to tell us about that isn't an emergency, for example if your car has been stolen or you have been a victim of assault but your life is not currently in danger.
In an emergency: 999 emergency SMS service
If you are deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired you can register for the 999 Emergency SMS Service that allows you to text the police in an emergency from your mobile phone.
This service works throughout the UK on all mobile networks, but it cannot be used from abroad.
You have to be registered to use this SMS service. Simply text 'register' from your mobile phone to 999 and follow the instructions. For more information visit www.emergencysms.org.uk
Please do not send test or non-emergency texts – only use emergency SMS for real emergencies. For example, if:
- someone’s life is at risk
- a crime is happening now
- someone is injured or threatened
- there is a fire or people are trapped
- you need an ambulance urgently
- someone is in trouble on the cliffs, on the shoreline or is missing at sea.
The emergency service will either ask for more information or will tell you that help is on the way. Don’t assume that your message has been received until the emergency service sends a message back. It will usually take about two minutes before you get a reply. If you don’t get a reply within three minutes, please try again or find other ways of getting help.
Report a crime or concern when it is not an emergency
If you are deaf, hard of hearing, or speech impaired you can contact us to report a crime or concern through our online BSL video interpreting service, SignLive, instead of calling 101.
It’s not for use in emergencies, in these cases please use the text service above. But it is for when you have something you want to talk to us about.
To use the service you need to sign-up through the app or on the website. Then, when you call us your call will be received by our force control room and a SignLive interpreter will relay your issues to the control room operator on your behalf.
When you sign-up for SignLive you’ll also be given a personal extension number which enables our control room to reply back through the SignLive operator.
You can call us using SignLive 24/7, 365 days a year. Remember, if your life is in danger or a crime is taking place use the emergency SMS text service instead.
